Axis History Forum

This is an apolitical forum for discussions on the Axis nations and related topics hosted by the Axis History Factbook in cooperation with Christian Ankerstjerne’s Panzerworld and Christoph Awender's WW2 day by day.
Founded in 1999.

Well...
I can tell you about the second book.
I bought it after reading some good feedback but I expected something more. The author does not give the most accurate and fresh insight into this subject but whole book is still ok. To know Japanese point of view and all chain of decisions made before the outbrake of war I would rather reccomend I. Nobukata's records. If you can read in Japanese I can suggest other books but they are hard to get or expensive.

Iriye is excellent, no question. That book is a quarter of a century old now, true enough. However, since History involves more than merely excavating records and creating timelines & databases but also interpretation, it retains much value. His PEARL HARBOR AND THE COMING OF THE PACIFIC WAR (1999) is essential as well.

Neither volume is rare or expensive.

The Morley series remains the best in English available, but is not easy to get hold of outside of library collections, and would be costly, I expect.

If he, or rather his book, is excellent, it is a questionable thing. The publication is quite short and general that's why I do not have it in my most favourite list. Sometimes I quote some statements in my own publications about the Pacific War, however, sometimes I have to check some facts or missing dates. The huge plus is that the book is the Japanese point of view written in English.

Of course you can still buy a copy because it's cheap and worth keeping on a shelf. Evering depends on what you need and what you expect from this book.

I have finished and published the first volume of The Rising Sun in Arms. It is an encyclopaedic work on the Japanese Imperial Armed Forces from 1937 to 1945. Let me reproduce a paragraph of the Acknowledgments: “I owe a particular debt of gratitude to Mr. Marcus Wendel, and to all the historians and researchers, members of the forum Japan at War 1895-1945, included in Mr. Wendel’s web page. Their posts and e-mails have been particularly useful in the making of this book. The forum Japan at War 1895-1945 gave me the opportunity of receiving help, discussing topics, and exchanging data with other researchers. I should like to offer special thanks to the help provided by Lt. Amuro, Mr. Akira Takazawa, Col. John Whitman (sadly deceased), Mr. Higashi, Mr. O. Marek, Dr. Leo Niehorster, Mr. Steen Ammentorp. Mr. Wellgunde and Mr. Fontessa. Obviously, the mistakes and gaps of the present work are exclusively mine.”
The plan is the following:
The Rising Sun in Arms (14 volumes)
Order of Battle of the Imperial Japanese Army
Volume 1: Army High Command, Army Groups, and Field Armies
Volume 2: Corps and Logistic HQs
Volume 3: Divisions and Groups
Volume 4: Brigades, Fortresses and Army Troop HQs
Volume 5: Regiments, 1
Volume 6: Regiments, 2
Volume 7: Minor Units, 1
Volume 8: Minor Units, 2
Volume 9: Minor Units, 3
Order of Battle of the Imperial Japanese Navy
Volume 10: Navy High Command, Fleets and Squadrons
Volume 11: Naval, Ground and Air Units
Volume 12: War Vessels and Auxiliary Ships
Army General Officers and Navy Flag Officers
Volume 13: Abe-Nagami
Volume 14: Nagamine-Yunokawa

All volumes are finished. I will publish the remaining 13 volumes if the first volume balance its publishing cost.

The first 9 volumes covered the order of battle of the Imperial japanese Army. An order of battle included a lot of data, of course. Many tables and organization diagrams. However, I should not call it "electronic database".

Hi There
Newbie here - and this is not really my sphere of expertise - more the RN and the ETO in general. Quick bio - I design and develop (plus do a shed load of research for) the TSWW game system (see our website - if you want to know more please contact me via that site www.tsww-online.com). To that end I have a great interest in the history of WW2 - and not the "conspiracy theory" side. Books I can recommend as at least being readable, and generally informative are:
Shattered Sword - Parshall and Tully. Lots of you have recommended it. Amazing book, that delves into the battle from the Japanese side in many different levels.
The Battle of Midway - Symonds - good book - and deals extensively with the USN side of the operation.
The Burma Campaigns - Frank McLynn. Decent, uses several of the other books as sources but adds something to the lexicon in my view.
Road of Bones - Fergal Keane
The various books written in part by David Hughes et al on the British and Commonwealth armies. They tell you what was in Burma, SW Pac etc in excruciating and vital detail.
Rising Sun - John Toland - very very good book for a generalised source
WWII - W S Churchill - gets you a lot of information on the political decisions made by the British.
Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek and the China he lost - Jonathon Fenby. Great book looking at how the Nationalists tried to hang in there.
The Eagle against the Sun - Ronald Spector. Another decent generalist historu.
Neptune's Inferno - When I find the book again I will put the author up. Excellent book detailing the mess in the SW Pac during the Guadalcanal campaign.
Guadalcanal - Richard Frank. Good book - took me a long time to read it as I was buried in Glantz's stuff on the GPW.
China's War with Japan - Rann Mitter. Poor in my view. Clearly written by someone who has a serious anti-colonial axe to grind, and blames most of the problems in China on the Western nations rather than on China's apparent (based on other reading) lack of a viable government etc.
Burma - The Forgotten War - Latimer. You can guess I have been working on SEAC! This is an excellent book on the subject. I just wish he had put in more info on the units!
The various "Bloody Shambles" books by Shores et al. Compulsory reading. Excellent.
Defeat into Victory - Bill Slim - which is a great book by arguably the best Allied General of WW2 (and yes, I know Patton, Bradley, MacArthur etc are good as well).
The US, Indian, and British Official histories. We have them all (as well as Canadian, Australian and New Zealand ones). As such they are a crucial resource for examining the Allied side in the war.
When Tigers Fight - Wilson - dated but not any worse than most on the topic.
Sunburst - Peattie - excellent book on the development of the IJNAS and its weapons, doctrine etc.
The Japanese Army Handbook - Forty. Better than no source at all, and has some really interesting gems inside it.
Rikugun Vol 1 - Leland Ness. Again a very interesting source - but it can be confusing as all hell. Its also incomplete in our opinion which is a real pain. By far the most complete book I have found so far.
I have a couple of books on the fall of Singapore. I have not yet read them as every time I start my temper boils over. I am assued that they are very good indeed. When I dig them out the car I will list them here as well.
Shanghai 1937 - by one of the contributors her. Its a good book. Again I could kill for a decent TOE and schedule of arrival for units - but one of the few decent sources on that time period.
The US Army in WW2 - Stanton. The definitive source on the US Army units, and a decent listing of where they went, what they had by TOE etc.
I believe he did a book on the USMC - my colleagues own that one, and again it's definitive.
The Railwayman - Eric Lomax. A book about one man and how he ended up on the Burma Railway. Very interesting.
Spitfires over the Arakan - Cant recall the author but this is a very interesting book on the impact of the Spitfire in 1943-4 Google will get the book up for you!
Eduardo Cea's books have some merit but they are somewhat flawed. Also some are now only available at crazy prices.
The Aces of the IJN and Aces of the IJA books are very interesting - as long as you totally ignore the absurb claims for allied losses. In those two books, if they are to be believed, the IJA and IJN shot down every plane in the RAF, SAAF, USAAF, USN, RAAF, RNZAF, Royal Dutch AF, and the IAF between Gibraltar and Pearl Harbour - at least twice - during the period from December 7/8 1941 to June of 1942. Total rubbish. That aside I concur with the others that these are crucial sources.
Silent Victory - Clay Blair. Want to know about the USN's submarine war against japan, then this is the book for you.
The British War Machine - Edgerton. Worth reading to see what drove the UK and its empire to war in Europe - and the catastrophic decision making processes that led to war in the Far East, with some very far reaching effects on the UK.
Squadrons of the Fleet Air Arm (I will put the author up on request - google finds this book)> Excellent and exhaustive resource on the FAA in WW2 as a whole.
RAF Squadrons - another all encompassing source.
SAAF Squadrons - as above for the RAF book. This is of peripheral interest as it deals with ASW operations in the Indian Ocean and assets allocated for Operation Ironclad.
I have a book on the RNZAF during the war - and cannot find it. When I do I will post it as it is in my view a fascinating source on the little known operations of the New Zealanders in the war.
I also have a couple of (now very) old books on the Nationalist Chinese military - names to follow.

Operation Pacific - Edwin Gray - British Pacific Fleet operations 1944-5. As an aside - for the bloke that thought the Pacific Campaign was an all American victory - read this book. Go do naval history dot net and look at the ship histories. RN assets deployed to the PTO, SW Pac, and the SEAC areas included a total of 7 fleet or light fleet carriers, 10-16 escort carriers, 15 Battleships, about 35 cruisers (I would need to check) and 40+ destroyers. This does not include the horde of DEs, Sloops, and Corvettes also allocated to the area, the fleet train assets, or the 3-6 million tonnes of British flagged or controlled merchantmen used by the Allies to help support the USN in its operations in the PTO and SW PAC areas. Our initial research indicates that without that, there is no PTO drive... until the surrender of Germany in any case.

I ordered the Spanish ladies first book - waiting for it to arrive. I hope it is useful! Assuming it is, I can state I want the entire series... the day before yesterday!!!

Websites:
CARL. I am sure you all know about it. You can dig most of Nafziger out of here and multiple sources that are not by him. Very useful.
The Australian, New Zealand government websites.
orbat.com
Leo Niehorster's site
The Burma Star organisation's site.
RA39-45 - about the Royal Artillery. Very interesting and useful as it indicates British artillery assets sent to the Pacific.
combinedfleet.com - excellent site on the IJN. TROMs are vital.
naval_history.net - amazing (better than combined fleet in some ways) site relating to the Royal Navy.
Oddly - Wkipedia.org. Lot of decent stuff on there, and where there are few if any other sources, at least this provides pointers.

There are lots more.

If any of you have a decent set of sources on the 1937-49 nationalist Chinese I would be delighted find out more. Ditto the communist Chinese, and am really interested in as much as I can find out about the war as a whole....